NORTH CONWAY, N.H.—Score comes to you this morning from the White Mountains, where we’ve been on assignment since Saturday.

EXCLUSIVE – ANDY HARRIS TO ENDORSE GINGRICH: Maryland Congressman Andy Harris will endorse Newt Gingrich today. The freshman Republican, who was not in the House during Gingrich’s tenure as Speaker, will be the first of several federal and state legislators to announce their support for the surging presidential candidate, according to a source familiar with the rollout plan.

SNEAK PEEK – 3 NEW HAMPSHIRE SHERIFFS WILL BACK ROMNEY: Showcasing his strength in the Granite State on the day after the Union Leader endorsed Gingrich, Mitt Romney will announce later this morning that three more county sheriffs have endorsed him. Mike Downing (R-Rockingham County), Craig Wiggin (R-Belknap County) and Michael Prozzo (R-Sullivan County) will join sheriffs Scott Hilliard (R-Merrimack County) and Douglas Dutile (R-Grafton County) in backing the frontrunner. Sheriffs are key endorsements in New Hampshire because they control large county organizations. Downing is especially important because he is from Rockingham County, a key Republican area of the state that includes Salem, Derry and the Seacoast. A former state senator, Downing was a big McCain supporter in 2007 and 2008.

LOOKING AHEAD – SHERIFF JOE CAMPAIGNS WITH PERRY TUESDAY: Texas Gov. Rick Perry will campaign tomorrow in Hudson, New Hampshire, with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The endorsement of the polarizing Arizona lawman, famous for his ruthless approach to illegal immigration, gives Perry some cover on the issue that undercut his campaign in September and that has again become central to the campaign conversation. Notably, Sheriff Joe backed Romney in 2008. http://bit.ly/uyy5Dw

MITT VS. MITT – NEW DNC TV AD IN 6 STATES: The Democratic National Committee is putting an undisclosed sum behind a TV ad in six markets that attacks Mitt Romney as an inconsistent flip-flopper, escalating their attacks on a frontrunner they see as a vulnerable. The 30-second TV ad will run in Albuquerque, NM; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Columbus, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Washington, DC; and Milwaukee, WI on a mix of broadcast and cable. It is a trailer for a longer video on a new DNC website called MittvMitt.com. State Democratic parties in all the swing states are hosting events to generate earned media coverage of their longer video. The 30-second spot: http://bit.ly/uNjwof. Watch the whole 4-minute video on the new microsite. It’s a best-of highlight reel you can expect to see variations of over and over again in the weeks to come, from Romney critics in both parties: http://bit.ly/uvhQbt.

** As Gingrich tries to show he’s serious, Cain’s campaign releases a 9-9-9 movie and Romney talks about dreams of his father, here’s POLITICO’s Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE STAKES - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD: Thanksgiving put politics on the back burner for a couple days. It was good timing for Gingrich because it allowed the post-debate immigration kerfuffle to fizz out a little. The Union Leader’s endorsement, which drove yesterday’s conversation, will give needed validation for Gingrich to present himself as THE ‘conservative’ alternative to Romney in the early states. Now he needs to hunker down and build up an organization in the early states to capitalize on the “Newtmentum.” With all that in mind, we have these questions for the week ahead:

(1) How will Boston rain on Newt’s parade?

(2) How negative will the next Union Leader editorial about Romney be toward him?

(3) What percentage of the questions Gingrich gets asked this week will be about immigration? http://dmreg.co/tbh0S8

(4) Will any of Romney’s Republican opponents criticize him as intensely this week as the Democratic National Committee does in its new ad?

(5) Who will attack Gingrich harder in Iowa: Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum?

UNION LEADER ENDORSEMENT – HOW HARD DOES THE UNION LEADER HIT MITT? The day after New Hampshire’s biggest newspaper and most powerful conservative voice backed Gingrich, it becomes the $64,000 question. Romney is undeniably the frontrunner in this state, but the Union Leader could pull its punches or they could make his life miserable.

That’s what the paper did in 2008, when it endorsed McCain, and the effect was “devastating,” Rich Killion, a New Hampshire operative who worked on Romney’s 2008 campaign, told Alex Burns. http://politi.co/uR7Qc7

“If and when Mitt attacks Newt, they will protect him,” Patrick Griffin, an unaligned New Hampshire Republican consultant, predicted to Jonathan Martin. “They smell blood and on top of their interest in asserting the paper’s ideology, they see this as a chance to deny Romney a coast to the nomination.”

This is the 354-word editorial, which ran on the front page of the paper and did NOT mention Romney by name:http://bit.ly/uZTMQw.

Telegraphing the paper’s 2012 Romney critique on CNN, Union Leader editorial page editor Andrew Cline described him as “a very play-it-safe candidate” who would be “perfect” in the “late 19th century” but not now. “He doesn’t want to offend anybody,” Cline told Candy Crowley. "I'm really not sure precisely what we get out of a President Romney.” http://bit.ly/sUH7GL

NEWT’S CHANCE – IMMIGRATION MESSAGE WILL DETERMINE WHETHER THIS BECOMES A TWO-MAN RACE: “If he can convince GOP activists in the coming days that his immigration plan does not amount to amnesty, it could resolve the lingering question of the Republican contest: who will give Romney a run,” Jonathan Martin writes in the story leading our web site this morning. “If he can’t, he’s likely to return to the pack and the uncertainty which has marked the campaign to date will reassert itself, leaving the former Massachusetts governor with a fractured conservative opposition going into the home-stretch before voting begins.” http://bit.ly/tCJF2V

GLASS HOUSE – “ROMNEY IN 2006 BACKED AMNESTY STANCE HE NOW DEEMS ‘AMNESTY’”: That’s the headline on a Bloomberg story that posted overnight. During a sit-down at Bloomberg News’s Washington bureau in March 2006, he reportedly said that the 11 million immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally “are not going to be rounded up and box-carred out.” From Bloomberg: “Law-abiding people who pay taxes, learn English and don’t rely on government benefits should be allowed to ‘get in line’ to apply for citizenship, he said. ‘We need to begin a process of registering those people, some being returned, and some beginning the process of applying for citizenship and establishing legal status,’ Romney said.” This could undercut Romney’s ability to attack on the issue. http://buswk.co/sfaynL

GETTING SERIOUS – “GINGRICH EAGER TO BE MORE THAN AN ANTI-ROMNEY”: “[T]he Gingrich campaign shows signs of putting to rest concerns that his candidacy is little more than a promotional tour,” Trip Gabriel writes on A12 of today’s New York Times. “This week, his book-signing appearances are all preceded by town-hall-style meetings. Over the weekend, hundreds turned out at his campaign events in Florida…The Gingrich campaign says it has raised $4 million since the end of September, a big jump over the previous three months, when it brought in only $800,000 and ended the fiscal quarter with $350,000 in the bank. The campaign would not say how much of that came from high-dollar donors, who are a sign of establishment support beyond the small contributors who respond to Internet and e-mail pitches. Nor would it say whether it planned television ads — another sign of a campaign’s maturity — which are costly but have the potential to shift the conversation with voters.” http://nyti.ms/uK3LVo

RICH LOWRY, editor of National Review, on Meet the Press: “I tend to think Newt is a little bit like watching an episode of ‘MacGruber’ on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ He has this explosive device with him constantly, which is his propensity to say things that are incredibly impolitic, but if he gets through the next six weeks and if he wins Iowa, he is now set up for a hell of a run.” http://on.msnbc.com/soV6uB

A TOP AIDE TO ROMNEY, predicting on background to a NYT reporter that Gingrich’s bubble will deflate like all the others before: “You don’t have to go deep here. It ranges from immigration to ethics to being a Washington insider to Freddie Mac to you pick them.” http://nyti.ms/uK3LVo

SLOW AND STEADY – ROMNEY PLODS TO THE FINISH LINE:

SENDS FIRST IOWA MAILERS: “Mitt Romney’s first campaign advertisements in Iowa this election cycle – a batch of oversized postcards – say he’s ‘the strongest Republican to beat Barack Obama,’” the Des Moines Register reports. “One says Romney will ‘protect our values.’ Multiple versions of the Romney mailers, each with a different theme, are circulating in Iowa. Another touches on illegal immigration. Romney, who has been in Iowa six days so far this year, says in his mailers: ‘It’s up to you, Iowa.’…The flip-side has a photo of Romney in which he seems to have his head bowed in prayer.” http://dmreg.co/tJVqat

PUSHES OBAMA TO BLOCK $600 BILLION DEFENSE CUTS: "I’m calling on the president to say no way for those [supercommittee trigger] cuts, restore the $600 billion into the military and take that amount and eliminate it from other programs," Romney told New Hampshire's WMUR on Sunday's "CloseUP" segment, according to The Hill’s write-up. http://bit.ly/tTRwHh

DREAMS OF HIS FATHER – HOW GEORGE ROMNEY’S 1968 DEFEAT MADE MITT GUN SHY: Michael Leahy writes a 2,300-word piece in today’s Washington Post on the relationship between Mitt Romney and his dad George. It focuses on how deeply the son was affected by his father’s collapse from frontrunner status in 1968 over the issue of Vietnam and the “brainwashing” gaffe. From the story: “George Romney’s national student coordinator, then-23-year-old Richard Eyre…thought that the campaign and the candidate were underprepared for the rigors of a White House campaign…back at BYU, Eyre would write a master’s thesis about the campaign’s shortcomings. As he readied himself for a 2008 White House run, Mitt Romney would turn over Eyre’s main points to his own campaign team, determined not to fall prey to the same mistakes. ‘…[M]y father felt he was thrust into the limelight before he had really made a decision to run and before he was ready,’ Romney says. ‘He became an instant front-runner. . . Everything he did and said was scrutinized.’ Romney pauses. ‘And bringing down the front-runner is sport.’” http://wapo.st/sGdq0j

GOOD GET FOR MITT – IOWA’S RANTS COMES HOME: Former Iowa state lawmaker Christopher Rants backed Romney four years ago but held off on jumping back aboard until Sunday. It came down to ELECTABILITY. “There are two candidates I really like. Mitt and Newt,” Rants told The Des Moines Register’s Jennifer Jacobs yesterday. “But as much as I like Newt, I don’t think he has the discipline to run a national campaign with zero margin for error. I also think he will be a very tough sell in the general election to the voters we need to win the swing states.” Register: http://dmreg.co/vjjg0a. Chris’ op-ed in the Sioux City Journal: http://bit.ly/uckKyk.

9-9-9 THE MOVIE – CAIN CAMPAIGN RELEASES SIX-MINUTE WEB VIDEO: Herman Cain’s sinking campaign is trying to turn the conversation back to the centerpiece of his campaign. How long will it take for a parody video of this six-minute web video? Over/under: six hours. Watch on YouTube: http://bit.ly/sLc2bg.

WHAT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE UP TO: Gingrich speaks at a 7 p.m. town hall hosted by Rep. Tim Scott in Charleston, S.C. It follows a private fundraiser. Here’s today’s Charlotte Observer curtain-raiser: http://bit.ly/tlChua. Cain speaks at the Hilton in McLean at 6:30 p.m. Santorum hosts a meet-and-greet in Barrington, N.H. and a town hall in Franklin. Huntsman has a town hall in Merrimack.

WHAT THE PRESIDENT IS UP TO – EU MEETINGS: “Later in the morning, the President will welcome the leaders of the European Union to a summit at the White House,” per The Daily Guidance. “In the afternoon, the President will host an EU summit lunch…Later in the afternoon, the President, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will deliver statements in the Roosevelt Room.”

THE PERMANENT CAMPAIGN – OBAMA SWING-STATE VISITS SURPASS PRESIDENTIAL RECORD: “When President Barack Obama jets to Scranton, Pa., Wednesday to promote his jobs package, he'll log his 56th event in a presidential battleground state this year, putting him well ahead of President George W. Bush's record-breaking swing-state travel in 2003,” today’s Wall Street Journal reports. “Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 17 of his third year in office, Bill Clinton held 40 events over 24 days in the battlegrounds of his time…Over that same stretch, George W. Bush held 49 events in 34 days…Mr. Obama has surpassed his predecessors in both categories; as of Nov. 17, he attended 54 events in 11 battleground states over 42 days…11 events in Virginia, 10 in Florida, eight in Pennsylvania and seven in North Carolina.” http://on.wsj.com/vuIV6e

REELECTION STRATEGY: If you missed Sunday’s New York Times, Jim Rutenberg got a good mindmeld with the high command in Chicago about their latest thinking/spin on reelection strategy. This is a good talking point for cable hits: “Back in the short-lived ‘recovery summer’ of 2010, Mr. Obama and his aides were looking at a version of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 ‘Morning in America’ campaign. Now…they are settling on a strategy that incorporates the combativeness of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1936 drive, the anti-Congress zeal of Harry S. Truman’s 1948 campaign and the disciplined focus of George W. Bush’s 2004 blitz against Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.” Jim leads his piece with some details on the overlooked role that Obama campaign volunteers played in the Democratic victories in Charlotte during this month’s elections. http://nyti.ms/tmTGXM

ARIZONA SENATE – PPP POLL SHOWS DEMS COULD BE COMPETITIVE: Republican Jeff Flake led Democrat Richard Carmona by just four, 40 to 36, in a Public Policy Polling survey. “Carmona barely has half of Flake's name recognition but his numbers break down 17% positive to 11% negative with the few voters that know who he is,” writes Tom Jensen, the Democratic pollster. “Carmona's early competitiveness has a lot to do with strong support from Hispanic voters.” http://bit.ly/unVMBa

HOUSE TALKER – GONZALEZ RETIREMENT CREATES RIPPLE EFFECT: “Texas Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will forego reelection in 2012,” he announced the day after Thanksgiving. “Democrats familiar with Gonzalez's decision [tell Alex Isenstadt] they expect the retirement will have an electoral ripple effect. State Rep. Joaquin Castro will likely run for the seat and former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez is expected to run for a nearby district. The filing period for candidates to declare their intentions to run for Congress in Texas opens on Monday.” http://politi.co/tKULnP

CODA – QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Well, I’ve faded from first to third, and that’s not exactly fading all the way down to the bottom.” – Herman Cain, last night in Sarasota http://bit.ly/t3H0mi

Authors:

About The Author

James Hohmann is a reporter for POLITICO Pro.

He covered the 2012 presidential campaign from start to finish, authoring the daily Morning Score tipsheet for nearly two years as he reported from 23 states over the course of the primaries and general election. Through the fall, he traveled with Mitt Romney.

Hohmann spent 2010 chronicling the Republican Party’s drive to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

He arrived from The Washington Post at the end of 2009. Previously he wrote for the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau, the Dallas Morning News and The San Jose Mercury News.

An honors graduate of Stanford University, Hohmann studied American political history. He served as editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily and wrote an award-winning thesis about the 1976 Republican primaries and the political ascendancy of Ronald Reagan.